MINES

Moranbah North heading for another record

ANGLO American’s Moranbah North longwall mine in Queensland is on track to deliver record production targets in 2017 – vindicating the company’s decision to hold on to its key coal assets.

Lou Caruana
Anglo American's Moranbah North longwall coal mine in Queensland.

Anglo American's Moranbah North longwall coal mine in Queensland.

Moranbah North general manager Craig Manz attributed the success of its production strategy to a team-based high performance culture at the mine.

“Our team has worked together to embrace technology and improve productivity, without compromising the health and safety of our people,” he said.

“We continue to develop and implement innovative initiatives that proactively improve the way we work, from our longwall dust gutter system, to live strata defect awareness and enhancing communication using a tablet to provide a visual, real-time solution.”

Anglo American decided to abandon the sales of its Moranbah North mine and its nearby Grosvenor longwall mine as the fundamentals for coal improved.

Instead it implemented changes to the operations and culture of the mines.

Moranbah North delivered its highest yearly production total ever of 7.6 million tonnes run-of-mine coal for 2016 in challenging mining conditions.

In 2017 the mine started-up its longwall 112 in what had historically been known as “tiger country” due its structured strata.

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